Why being tough rules
Let me share with you the genesis of my love for tough characters.
(Follow the link to youtube, it's worth it)
The relevant bit is at timecode 5:47, when Igoo the stone ape wades into the bubbling caldera of lava to retrieve the firebird egg. 7-year-old me, eating a microwave hotdog and binging cartoons in my X-men underwear, watched that and it was etched onto my memory from that day forth. Tough characters are fucking radical.
Later on, I started playing RPGs and one of them was this one:
My first game didn't get past the bid for stats: reason being, the GM made the mistake of reading us this entry from that game's Endurance attribute:
"Where normal mortals tire after a few minutes of fierce
combat, Amberites can keep fighting, fencing, or partying for
days on end. In addition, Amberite Endurance includes the
ability to heal all wounds rapidly, even to the extent of
(eventually) regenerating lost limbs and organs. In a fight of
any kind, whether Warfare, Strength, or Psyche, the character
with the greatest Endurance always has a chance of holding
out longer than an opponent with lesser Endurance, and
winning by default. In addition, anyone with less than Amber
level Endurance will not be able to walk the Pattern unassisted.
Endurance is the only Attribute that comes into play in
every situation, involving either physical combat or the use of
arcane powers.
Corwin, the main character of the Chronicles, is Amber's
champion in Endurance. Why? Mostly because he could just
keep going, in spite of the wear and tear of his adventures. In
addition, Corwin regenerated his eyes, after they were burned
from his head, far faster than any other Amberite expected.
Why Bid on Endurance? Frankly, you need it for
everything. And, even if you are somewhat inferior in some
battle, a higher rank in Endurance, combined with a little
patience, virtually guarantees victory. Endurance is the
ultimate Amber tie-breaker. "
We all bid all of our points to win that stat.
The problem of being tough
Which isn't to saying being a tough dude makes you immediately cool. Behold this chump:
That there is (sigh) "Moondog Greenberg", the tough hero archetype from d20 modern. Note that he sucks. That's because, unlike the previous evocative entries, he was sold like this:
"Levels in this class represent improvement in physical fitness, health and stamina"
WOW JESUS I CAN HAVE FITNESS AND HEALTH. SIGN ME THE FUCK UP.
The issue is one of passive versus active attributes: the sell is what he is or what he gets; he is a tough, physically fit and healthy guy. He gets more HP per level.
The feats of Endurance above, however, are active: they show or describe what you do, what being a tough guy allows you to accomplish. Corwin isn't a "healthy guy", he's a guy that doesn't die when gutted with a sword: that's an order of magnitude more impressive. Igoo doesn't have a "higher CON mod" than other apes: he has stone skin and can take a bath in hot lava.
The perception of toughness as a static commodity plagued its reputation in RPGs for years. But people gravitated toward the tough characters, despite this assumed "flaw"; what gives? The bottom line is, being able to merely function in certain environments is a super power all on it's own. Sure, it's thrilling to watch Superman battle Doomsday in the streets of Metropolis, but how much cooler is it when they're punching one another in an active volcano?!
(Man, a lot of these involve lava, huh?)
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Action
Action scenes find the heroes of this game in all manner of hideous predicaments; they’re set on fire, plunged into acid, stabbed with poisoned needles, exposed to flesh-eating bacteria, buried in rubble, drowned, electrocuted, and frozen among a universe of other blood-curdling dangers. They survive these trials by flexing their indomitable will to survive, expressed by Endurance actions.
Surviving Hazards and Poison
The dangers posed to body, heart and soul in conflict are well-described under the Combat mechanics (p.XX), but what of other dangers?
The aforementioned fire, crushing, drowning, acid etc. are all expressed in this game by Hazards. These are passive or active elements of the scenery that just happen to be able to kill you if you touch them.
Poisons, such as snake venom, deadly plant toxins, and dangerous chemical injections are similar to Hazards but mechanically distinct. They’re typically carried like equipment, rather than being part of the surroundings.
Hazards, described in their own section (p.XX), are endured by taking an Endurance action equal to or higher than their Rating: lower-Ranked actions result in damage equal to the difference. This action must be taken immediately during contact with the Hazard or it deals its full damage.
If a character remains in a Hazard for longer than one action, it must be resisted every round of sustained contact. They may instead continue to withstand it with a prolonged Endurance action. They might, for example, wade through a simmering caldera of magma over several turns of deliberate trudging by turning their initial Endurance action to survive contact into a Sustained action by storing it in a Focus slot.
If a character remains in a Hazard for longer than one action, it must be resisted every round of sustained contact. They may instead continue to withstand it with a prolonged Endurance action. They might, for example, wade through a simmering caldera of magma over several turns of deliberate trudging by turning their initial Endurance action to survive contact into a Sustained action by storing it in a Focus slot.
Inimical environments, such as the crushing depths of the ocean or the airless reaches of outer space, kill a character within the span of a single round unless an Endurance action of Rank sufficient to survive in such a hostile place is taken. The Endurance Effect Chart should be the GM’s guide to what Rank is necessary to survive and function in such deadly climates. This action may also be sustained, allowing characters to do battle in all manner of deadly environments.
Poison
Only rat bastards use poisons to kill their rivals; even in this scorched and fallen age, it is universally regarded as a treacherous, cowardly tool, used only by putrid lowlives and honorless scum. You may want to bookmark this section; your players will reference it a lot.
Poisons are composed of four elements: Doses, Vector, Virulence, and Effect.
Only rat bastards use poisons to kill their rivals; even in this scorched and fallen age, it is universally regarded as a treacherous, cowardly tool, used only by putrid lowlives and honorless scum. You may want to bookmark this section; your players will reference it a lot.
Poisons are composed of four elements: Doses, Vector, Virulence, and Effect.
Poisons are equipment, like weapons, rations and other tools. They are measured in Doses, which are the smallest quantities that can be administered to achieve their deadly effects.
To use them, they must be administered. A Poison’s Vector describes how a character must contact it to be in any danger. For example, an ingested Poison would be harmless is smeared onto a club, while a touch poison would not. A given dose might be coated on a weapon, cooked into food, or thrown like a grenade onto an unsuspecting foe; the exact administration is an exercise in the Tactical Infinity.
Possible Vectors include, but are not limited to:
- Touch
- Ingestion
- Inhalation
- Injury
A Poison’s Effect describes the injuries it inflicts on a poisoned character. Generally, Poisons create Imbalances: their Mechanical and Dramatic Penalties are described here. If the Virulence is not completely resisted, then the resulting Aggravation builds towards this Imbalance.
Weapons and Poison
A weapon may be coated with a single dose of Poison. If a foe fails to completely defend against an attack by this weapon (in other words, if it damages them) then they are struck with the Poison. This means, in addition to being damaged, they must contend with the full Virulence of the Poison with an Endurance action or receive Aggravation towards the Poison’s Imbalance in addition to the damage they take from the attack. Ouch!
You can see why people hate this tactic. Also, why it remains so popular amongst bastards.
Coating a weapon in Poison is only ever good for a single dose; generally, it is done carefully, in Real-Time or slower scenes, to prevent the incredibly likely outcome of accidental poisoning oneself. Although sucidally stupid to do in the frantic melee of an Action scene, it may none the less be accomplished with a Rank 3+ Agility action and a roll to see if you Poison yourself. Roll 1d10 and if your result is 1, congratulations dumbass: resist the Virulence of your Poison with an Endurance roll, and your dose of Poison is wasted on you.
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A weapon may be coated with a single dose of Poison. If a foe fails to completely defend against an attack by this weapon (in other words, if it damages them) then they are struck with the Poison. This means, in addition to being damaged, they must contend with the full Virulence of the Poison with an Endurance action or receive Aggravation towards the Poison’s Imbalance in addition to the damage they take from the attack. Ouch!
You can see why people hate this tactic. Also, why it remains so popular amongst bastards.
Coating a weapon in Poison is only ever good for a single dose; generally, it is done carefully, in Real-Time or slower scenes, to prevent the incredibly likely outcome of accidental poisoning oneself. Although sucidally stupid to do in the frantic melee of an Action scene, it may none the less be accomplished with a Rank 3+ Agility action and a roll to see if you Poison yourself. Roll 1d10 and if your result is 1, congratulations dumbass: resist the Virulence of your Poison with an Endurance roll, and your dose of Poison is wasted on you.
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The Poison rules are comically overdue, so... Here they are! They are probably exactly what you expected, no surprises. I kept the social more against their use because, it's fun to have rules and to break them. Also, note the subtle addition of verbage from the budding equipment rules and the reference to the Tactical Infinity, reinforcing the method by which this game is played.
You're again seeing some work-in form playtest feedback here, and you'll see a bit more in the next section. The intention of the rules to allow you to function in inimical environments was not clear to test groups, so I put that feature center-stage and repeated the ability to do so three times in the text (here, the Effect Chart, and in the next section).
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Real-time
The skill of resilience and toughness allows characters to Withstand hardships from painful, dangerous and deadly environments in Real-Time scenes. It retains its useful power of Surviving poisons and disease, as well.
Real-time
The skill of resilience and toughness allows characters to Withstand hardships from painful, dangerous and deadly environments in Real-Time scenes. It retains its useful power of Surviving poisons and disease, as well.
Some environments are so inimical to health (highly radioactive, underwater, etc) that simply being in them exposes a character to environmental Hazard (p.XX). Thankfully, Withstanding these dangers is simple; taking an Endurance action reduces the damage of the hazard by your result. A negative or zero result prevents all danger. If your action is below the Hazard’s Rating, you lose 1 Health Box per Rank of difference. For every Rank of damage taken, you also develop an elemental-themed Imbalance, or suffer from an additional malady such as mutation, depending on the nature of the Hazard.
Just as in Action scenes, the Endurance action to withstand the dangers of a Hazard is taken on first contact; failure to act results in the unmitigated damage of the Hazard! Your Endurance action may be sustained; this grants you immunity to all Hazards whose Rating is less than your action. Sustaining such an act of resilience is a great way to show off the invincibility of your character, as you stroll calmly through raging infernos or do battle while wading in radioactive sludge.
Surviving deadly poisons requires you to take an Endurance action against the Virulence of an administered poison. As with resisting hazards, a negative or zero result totally nullifies the poison. Otherwise, you must contend with the Poison’s Effect. See the full rules for Poison for details (p.XX)
Disease
Diseases ravage the already dying World of Ashes and Ghosts; maggots squirming in a dying man’s bones.
Diseases are composed of a few elements: Vector, Effect, Contagion, Virulence, and Cure.
Vectors for disease include, but are not limited to:
Diseases are living things that spread to new hosts. The transmissibility of a Disease is measured by its Contagion.
Contagion is rated between 1-9. Upon contact with a Disease’s Vector, roll a d10: if your roll is equal to or under the Contagion, your character contacts the disease and is a carrier. Even if successfully resisted with an Endurance action, a character remains a carrier of the illness and may spread it to others
A disease’s Virulence is the initial Rank of this Imbalance: characters may reduce this with an Endurance action upon initial contraction. Because they are living things, at the end of every Real-Time or longer scene, if a character has not been cured of their disease, increase it’s Aggravation by 1d10.
The only way to cleanse themselves of the illness is to be cured through scientific or mystical means. This may be done through two broad means; the Disease’s Cure, or the cleansing effect of a character's Immune System.
A disease’s Cure is just that; it’s the medicine that totally cleanses the body of the malady. Not every Disease has a Cure, but every Disease can be cured; it’s a matter of discovery or inventing a suitable remedy. When the Cure is well-known, or already discovered, it is listed under this entry.
Once administered, the Cure immediately nullifies the transmissibility of the Disease and suppresses all symptoms after a single action. At the end of the scene, it works the Disease completely out of the patient’s body and they are cured.
The Immune System acts similarly, but is more sporadic and less reliable than a Cure. At the end of every Real-Time scene, roll against Contagion again; if the result is ever under the Disease’s Contagion, your immune system fends it off permanently and you are no longer a carrier.
Some awful diseases cannot be overcome in this way: they plague you until you die, or they are cured.
Sustaining Actions
All actions sustained during a scene are typically released when that scene ends. Endurance actions are an exception to this: they can remain longer, as exhibited on the Effect Chart.
Additionally, a sustained Endurance action may be “dedicated” to prolonging any other sustained action. This requires one Focus slot for the original action, and one for the prolonging Endurance action.
Diseases ravage the already dying World of Ashes and Ghosts; maggots squirming in a dying man’s bones.
Diseases are composed of a few elements: Vector, Effect, Contagion, Virulence, and Cure.
Vectors for disease include, but are not limited to:
- Physical contact
- Airborn (breathing near carrier)
- Bite
- Bodily Fluid
Diseases are living things that spread to new hosts. The transmissibility of a Disease is measured by its Contagion.
Contagion is rated between 1-9. Upon contact with a Disease’s Vector, roll a d10: if your roll is equal to or under the Contagion, your character contacts the disease and is a carrier. Even if successfully resisted with an Endurance action, a character remains a carrier of the illness and may spread it to others
A disease’s Virulence is the initial Rank of this Imbalance: characters may reduce this with an Endurance action upon initial contraction. Because they are living things, at the end of every Real-Time or longer scene, if a character has not been cured of their disease, increase it’s Aggravation by 1d10.
The only way to cleanse themselves of the illness is to be cured through scientific or mystical means. This may be done through two broad means; the Disease’s Cure, or the cleansing effect of a character's Immune System.
A disease’s Cure is just that; it’s the medicine that totally cleanses the body of the malady. Not every Disease has a Cure, but every Disease can be cured; it’s a matter of discovery or inventing a suitable remedy. When the Cure is well-known, or already discovered, it is listed under this entry.
Once administered, the Cure immediately nullifies the transmissibility of the Disease and suppresses all symptoms after a single action. At the end of the scene, it works the Disease completely out of the patient’s body and they are cured.
The Immune System acts similarly, but is more sporadic and less reliable than a Cure. At the end of every Real-Time scene, roll against Contagion again; if the result is ever under the Disease’s Contagion, your immune system fends it off permanently and you are no longer a carrier.
Some awful diseases cannot be overcome in this way: they plague you until you die, or they are cured.
Sustaining Actions
All actions sustained during a scene are typically released when that scene ends. Endurance actions are an exception to this: they can remain longer, as exhibited on the Effect Chart.
Additionally, a sustained Endurance action may be “dedicated” to prolonging any other sustained action. This requires one Focus slot for the original action, and one for the prolonging Endurance action.
This allows character to cross the “scene barrier” with their actions intact; for example, a long-term use of Power towards a construction project taking place in a Montage scene might become a sustained lifting action, carrying a gigantic piece of construction equipment in a Real-Time or Action scene.
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I put the Disease rules here as they effect characters; I need to write about how they ravage populations as well, but all in due time. Plagues should absolutely be something characters have to deal with.
Note the repetition on how Endurance allows you to function in dangerous environments; there's some subtleties that might not be apparent that I included in the writing, such as the timing of when Endurance actions are taken, and the fact that the same action can then be sustained to prolong your immunity to a Hazard. Little shades of rule interaction like that really aid consistent rulings and make the function of a character's capabilities more clear to players.
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Montage
Another skill that might leave players scratching their head, Endurance is a passive, resistant trait that doesn’t lend itself well to long-term strategic moves. Or… Does it? After all, it’s the skill of sheer work output, as well as the one which enables survival in inimical (and therefore inaccessible) environments. Cunning players can put these traits to work in spectacular fashion.
Work Output
The sheer stubborn resilience of tough characters can make them produce godlike outputs of grunt work. This translates directly into the work output of a Populace of ever-larger sizes, allowing single characters to work the shifts of many, thereby reaping an enormous personal reward. Reference the Work Output Chart below to translate Endurance actions by Rank into its equivalent number of laborers.
Note that, although a single character’s output remains reasonably small, a work team of several characters capable of multiplying their output makes for incredibly impressive results. Good luck wrangling a small army of djinni or other supernatural beings to mine gold for you, but if you pull it off it’ll be spectacular!
Work Output Chart
1- A single laborer
2- 3 laborers
3- 5 laborers
4- A work team of 10
5- A 25 worker team
6- 50-strong workforce
7- A small army of 100 workers
8- A massive workforce of 250
Inimical Environments
Characters may need to travel through, hide in, or build fortress inside of deadly and inhospitable environments. When they undertake these most awesome of feats during the long and otherwise docile timeframe of a Montage scene, it requires an Endurance action of appropriate Rank to withstand the lethal circumstances while they accomplish their tasks.
Although it offers the same information as the Endurance Effect Chart, to give you a brief and concise refresher, here’s a truncated Environmental Danger Chart:
Characters may need to travel through, hide in, or build fortress inside of deadly and inhospitable environments. When they undertake these most awesome of feats during the long and otherwise docile timeframe of a Montage scene, it requires an Endurance action of appropriate Rank to withstand the lethal circumstances while they accomplish their tasks.
Although it offers the same information as the Endurance Effect Chart, to give you a brief and concise refresher, here’s a truncated Environmental Danger Chart:
Environmental Danger Chart
1- Dangerous temperatures (hot enough for heatstroke or cold enough for frostbite)
2- Deadly temperatures (so hot that heatstroke occurs in minutes, so cold that frostbite can result from exposure to wind)
3- Poisonous gases, wildfire-inducing heat, underwater, lake-freezing cold
4- Burning landscapes, ocean floor, high radioactivity
5- Caustic gas, radioactive waste, acid lakes
6- Molten lava, zero-pressure atmosphere, near-absolute zero cold
7- Molten steel, the fiery veins of the planet, spiritual corruption
8- Nuclear reactor, a place cursed by the Void
Surviving in such inhospitable places allows characters to travel through them, hide within them, construct and destroy structures inside them and otherwise access the full functionality of their capabilities within their boundaries during a Montage scene. If a sufficient Rank of Endurance is not achieved, then entering these places is suicide and they may not be traveled through, entered or any action taken within them.
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There's a story in the Weapons of the Gods game which contains a man being tied to a rock and submerged under a lake for decades; within the context of the game, that feat is impossible. I aimed to change that with my design, hence the Inimical Environments rule above.
Also, I don't actually remember when I first equated Endurance actions to work output, but I love the idea. It's gonna come up, once players start to latch onto Nodes and the late game, so I wanted to have a ready answer to the question of "how many laborers am I worth?" in character terms (plenty, dingus). I also adore the idea of press-ganging a bunch of Oni into an assembly line built in the acid-drowned ruins of an ancient factory, so I threw in a line about doing that so people's cogs are turning in that direction.
1- Dangerous temperatures (hot enough for heatstroke or cold enough for frostbite)
2- Deadly temperatures (so hot that heatstroke occurs in minutes, so cold that frostbite can result from exposure to wind)
3- Poisonous gases, wildfire-inducing heat, underwater, lake-freezing cold
4- Burning landscapes, ocean floor, high radioactivity
5- Caustic gas, radioactive waste, acid lakes
6- Molten lava, zero-pressure atmosphere, near-absolute zero cold
7- Molten steel, the fiery veins of the planet, spiritual corruption
8- Nuclear reactor, a place cursed by the Void
Surviving in such inhospitable places allows characters to travel through them, hide within them, construct and destroy structures inside them and otherwise access the full functionality of their capabilities within their boundaries during a Montage scene. If a sufficient Rank of Endurance is not achieved, then entering these places is suicide and they may not be traveled through, entered or any action taken within them.
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There's a story in the Weapons of the Gods game which contains a man being tied to a rock and submerged under a lake for decades; within the context of the game, that feat is impossible. I aimed to change that with my design, hence the Inimical Environments rule above.
Also, I don't actually remember when I first equated Endurance actions to work output, but I love the idea. It's gonna come up, once players start to latch onto Nodes and the late game, so I wanted to have a ready answer to the question of "how many laborers am I worth?" in character terms (plenty, dingus). I also adore the idea of press-ganging a bunch of Oni into an assembly line built in the acid-drowned ruins of an ancient factory, so I threw in a line about doing that so people's cogs are turning in that direction.